In the run up to the holidays, students tend to be a little excited – which is completely understandable! However, this also means they can be hard to motivate. Teachers often struggle to keep their students’ attention during this time, but it’s important to understand the excitement your students are feeling and try a more interactive and socially rewarding approach to teaching them. These top tips to keep classroom attention before the holidays are designed to motivate students of all ages, teach them effectively and utilise their excitement through more entertaining, interactive, and engaging teaching methods.
Make a Countdown Calendar
Get excited for the holidays with your students with a countdown calendar. A countdown calendar is an interactive tool that helps your students get excited for their upcoming break while also reminding them that there is still work to be done. Making them feel like they earn their holiday break may also help them stay motivated and focused. Students will feel satisfied when they see the countdown decrease after each school day ends.
Take Fun Breaks
Making lessons fun before the holidays is a good way of keeping students focused and it also helps make your class a highlight of their day. Allowing short breaks in your lessons in the last few weeks of term can motivate students to meet goals and get tasks completed, as they will look forward to receiving a bit of down time as a reward. This should only be done if they are up to date on their work and during the last week or two before the holidays. Playing games, giving students time to chat, sharing stories with the class and set quizzes are fun ways of filling little breaks and making your lesson something to look forward to.
Incorporate Multi-Media
Using videos, Kahoot! Quizzes and digital activities in your classes and presentations introduces a bit of entertainment to your lesson plans to keep the excited students focused. These multi-media tools make communicating with your students more fun in an exciting time of the year for them.
Interactive Activities
Excited students often have more energy so it’s important to harness their energy through interactive class activities. Fun presentations, re-enactments or even learning games can all help keep students’ attention during the final few weeks of term.
Let Your Students Teach
Get your students to talk about the things they are passionate about, you can even help them relate what they have learned to their passion. This can be done through presentations and creative writing exercises. You could also give your students topics and get them to teach their parts to the class through their own creative way and have the students grade each other. This is a fun way of teaching and learning that encourages everyone to participate in styles that suit them.
Teach Somewhere Else
Sometimes something as simple as a change of scenery can help your students feel refreshed and focused. While it may be too cold to teach outside, the IT lab, the gym, or anything new and interesting might make your students remember information or pay closer attention for your lesson.
The final few weeks of term are an exciting time for students and mixing up your teaching style could really go a long way during this time. Simply Education knows what makes teaching special and how to engage students. If you want to learn more and take your teaching career to the next level, then sign up for our CPD courses that are free to all registered candidates. Let us help you unlock your full potential as a teacher - register with Simply Education today.
